Sometimes I feel like a refereeing mother between two battling children when I look at the state of politics in this country. I shake my head and want to yell STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.
No one is interested in listening ...I mean really listening. Egos, ambition, greed, drive alot of what I have been observing. There are times when I want to throw up my hands and just say ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!! Why is it so hard to see what priorities are? Why is it so hard for supposedly intelligent people to sit and discuss rationally what is important to the health and welfare of this nation? And why do we as citizens put up...no wait...encourage the antics of those in position to literally decide our lives? Have we gotten so jaded that we don't really hear or see what is going on?
I know I know this is supposed to be a good news blog. Well guess what...it is. A friend of mine sent this article to me. It was a good day to read something like this. I was feeling what I described in the first paragraph. But now after reading the following ...I feel so much better!!!
Theres alot of good news in the article...the economy, job rate, homes, the stock market, etc, etc.
But the good news to me is that after reading it ...my fire has returned and I feel strong and determined yet again.
We are a great nation...because of the courage and bravery of those who went before us. Look at how this nation responded during WWII. Men, women, children were all united in the purpose. People of all kinds made great sacrifices, soldiers lost life and limb, women went out and carried on in factories to keep everything running. Food was rationed. There were very few luxuries.
And this country flourished, due in a great deal to those people.
We had courage!
Read what General Jimmy L. Cash has to say about the state of our nation today. Then ask yourself this....Do YOU have what it takes to keep us a great nation?
The good news is ....theres many of us who do.
Subject: What Now - Retired General Tells It Like It Is (Required Reading 101)
General Cash got it right, until he adopted the stance that President Bush got it right. Let’s face it, the one who has it figured, is Lee Iacoca, who asks, “Where are all of our leaders who (will do the right thing) inboth the executive and the legislative branches?” The Bush Administration has made the same mistakes as Johnson, Carter, et. al., but bigger and more mistakes. It’s obvious that economics is not the general’s forte, when he declares that inflation is low, the deficit is under control, and wages are high. Bush depended upon Rumsfeld, exclusively for 5 years, who made exactly the same mistakes McNamara made; i.e., disregarding the advice of his generals, trying to fight a war on the cheap, and totally underestimating the enemy. At least, McNamara reflected on his term as Secretary of Defense and correctly concluded that he and his team had beencompletely wrong and had doomed the Viet Nam war to failure, and he publicly apologized, twenty years after the fact. No political party nor candidate nor leader is all right or all wrong; no political arm has the answer to any of our problems. As Iacoca complains, the real leaders who are competent and who will do the right thing, are not in politics. They are not serving in the critical positions that need our best brains. The American people must pick and choose among those whooffer their services, and elect the best that can be found. They lucked out with Ronald Reagan, but their success has been all downhill, since. I have verified that B/G Jimmy L. Cash, the author of the article below, is for real (USAF Retired 1991).
http://www.worldcantwait.net/forum/showthread.php?t=55The article is a bit long, but he hits upon some very good points .....Frank B. De Armond
Retired General Tells It Like It IsFriday, February 09, 2007
“Let’s Be Specific”
Due to the thunderous applause that I received from the far-left over the “I Am Tired” letter written by one of our troops in Iraq, I thought it prudent to follow up with one last attempt to be very specific about what Ihave observed and actually personally encountered during my 36 years of service to this Great Country. Unlike Bob McClellan, I will not continue to whine, twist and degrade our country’s leaders on a weekly basis.Instead, this will be a one time input attempting to reach some of those who are confused by McClellan and his ilk’s unethical rantings and give some insight through my personal experience as a professional militaryofficer over the years. These examples are but a few. In real life there were many more which space and time will not allow. As a young fighter pilot, flying F-4s in Vietnam, I was stopped in my tracks by the decisions made by Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara. I wasyoung and naive, but even then I knew their daily interference was wrong and would not allow us to win this thing and go home. Decisions like not allowing us to strike enemy aircraft while still on the ground, keeping real targets off the target list, and allowing us to strike only rusted-out trucks made us basically a toothpick factory. However, the big one for me came the day I saw the President Lyndon Johnson on television, forcefully lying to the American people. I’ll never forget the language, “I want to assure the American people that the United States of America has never, and will never, bomb or use force inside the borders of Cambodia”. On and on he disavowed the reports thatthis was happening. I was amazed. Guess where I had put several F-4 loads of 750 pound general purpose bombs every day for the past five days. You guessed it, Cambodia!!! So much for Mr. Johnson. The only question in my mind was simply, “Was it just Johnson or was it the methodology of a particular political party?” I decided to delay answering that question until more experience was gained. Years passed, and I ignored politics as much as possible, as a good military man should. Then came Jimmy Carter. Our young people don’t remember 18% interest rates and 18% inflation, but I’ll bet someone in your family does. That is one really bad thing Carter did for our country, but it is not the worst.During this period, I was an F-15 Squadron Commander, located at Langley AFB, VA. Jimmy Carter and his democratic party stopped spare parts procurement for almost every weapon system in our military, and divertedthe funds to social programs. The F-15 was brand new at the time with leading edge technology designed to provide air superiority anywhere in the world on a moments notice. That was my job. I loved it, but guess what? Ina two year period from 1979 to 1981, there was not one day when more that one-third of my assigned aircraft were flyable. It is amazing the lengths we went to in those days, cannibalizing parts, expending twice the time andenergy to fix every little item, and still two-thirds of the birds were always broken because of no spare parts. Had this country faced a really serious military threat during that time frame, only Montana Hunters couldhave saved us. The military had some equipment, but it was all broken. Do you want to know the really bad part for me and the young fighter pilots working for me? Our flying sortie rate was so low that pilot proficiencydropped to dangerous levels. The accident rate tripled. That obviously was totally unacceptable, as we were losing expensive airplanes and highly trained young pilots at a rate comparable to losses seen in actual combat. All of a sudden, even a Texas Aggie like me began to see a trend. Forward a few years to 1986. I am an F-16 Wing Commander at MacDill AFB, Florida, and Ronald Reagan is president. His change in attitude and policy toward the military had time to fix the spare parts problem. We were flying 26,000 flying sorties per year out of MacDill AFB, my aircraft fully mission capable rate (FMC) was above 90%, the aircraft accident rate was below 1.75 per hundred thousand flying hours, fighter pilots were flyingand proficiency levels were at an all time high. The United States Air Force was ready to defend this Wonderful Country. Proof of the pudding is simple.Look what the USAF, and the military in general, accomplished in Iraq during Desert Storm. And, they did it in less than 100 hours. Yeah, at this point I was starting to realize there was a difference in mentality between Democrats and Republicans, or should I say, the Right and the Left. Then, came everyone’s favorite-—Bill Clinton. If there ever was an individual 180 degrees out of sync with the ideals and the values of the USmilitary, it was Clinton. He was a known draft dodger, military hating, self absorbed, unspeakingly shameless and immoral individual, who the Left managed to elect President of the United States of America. Clinton’santics in the White House would have brought court martial, conviction, and Dishonorable Discharge had he been a military member. We still suffer oral sex on school buses, because the President told the world it wasn’t real sex, and some of our children believed him. It took a lot of years, but now I became certain.
There is a big difference in the right and the left on all fronts, and for the first time I started feeling angry and shamed that the majority of the American people were actually willing to vote for such an individual.Sometimes, an abstract such as the following tells the story in very simple terms: Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore, TimRobbins, Susan Sarandon, Nancy Pelosi, Barbra Boxer, John Kerry, Benedict Arnold, and the list goes on.
America, wake up. Giving in to the likes of these people and Abraham Lincoln’s prediction of destruction from within just may come true. There is not a country in the world that can be considered a conventional military threat to the United States today. However, this country faces a new kind of threat-—one that will not go away. It is a threat even more serious than WWII, because money, industry and technology will not defeat it.
It is a threat of defeat from within. It is a threat of a faltering economy because of a lack of resources, or even the simple threat of such a loss brought on by terrorism. It is a threat created by the American peopletrusting the inept. It is a threat created by the people wanting change, and perilously believing that the left can successfully deliver that change. Have you seen anything from the left that remotely resembles ananswer to the Iraq situation? Have you seen anything more than continued Bush-Bashing? Is that an answer? If there was ever a need for a strong, well trained military, it is now. THE LEFT HAS HISTORICALLY DISMANTLED OUR MILITARY IN THE NAME OF REDISTRUBITION OF WEALTH FAVORING SOCIAL PROGRAMS. We just cannot afford to let that happen now. If we do, the entire country will be bowing to theeast several times a day within the next 50 years, maybe sooner. Now a final thought meant to upset as many as possible on the far-left. As you might guess, I don’t believe in political correctness. So, let’s lookat the facts, not far-left rhetoric attempting to empower the democratic party.
Initially, I was not a George Bush fan. I am not even a Republican. I normally vote Republican, because of my total despise of Communism, Socialism and the far-left in this country. I am a Conservative. However,during his watch, I feel President Bush just happened to stumble upon the leading edge of the greatest threat this country has ever faced. Mistakes have been made, because of the newness of the threat. Overall, thePresident has done a superb job dealing the threat, and at the same time held off the constant ranting, raving, deceitful and malicious escapades of the far-left attempting to regain political power.
IF THERE WAS EVER A TIME THE COUNTRY NEEDS TO COME TOGETHER AND BACK OUR PRESIDENT, IT IS RIGHT NOW. WITHOUT CONCENSUS WE ARE EMPOWERING THE TERRORIST!!!! The far-left is totally absorbed with the power struggle andregaining control of congress. They could care less about defeating the threat. It literally disgusts me to hear the constant disagreement with everything the President tries to do, all in the name of trying to make himlook bad to the voters. Unfortunately, by the time the American people really appreciate how bad the far-left really is, it may too late. What are the real facts? On the home front this country’s economy is thestrongest that it has been in my lifetime. Interest rates are as low asthey were when I was in high school fifty years ago. Inflation does notexist for all practical purposes. For you youngster’s, please remember theJimmy Carter comments? The Dow is approaching 13,000. Unemployment isnonexistent. Wages are at an all time high. Home ownership is at an alltime high. Taxes have been lowered to an almost acceptable level. Becauseof the surging economy the deficit is under control and projected to goaway far ahead of schedule. The far-left is rich beyond its wildest dreams,so Mr.President when are you going to “fix” all these domestic problems?
On the war front this country has not been touched since 2001. I rememberbeing part of a seminar at the USAF War College in 1983 discussing theterrorist threat. There were some good minds at that table and a lot ofdisagreement. However, one common thought was that the US would be hitwithin the next five years. Answers to the terrorist threat were just ashard to come by then as they are now. Well, it took a little longer thanthe projection, but the attack occurred. For an old military guy like me,the main point here is that it has not happened again. We have suckered thebad guys into entering the fight somewhere other than in our country. Tohell with political correctness. The President can’t say this, but I surecan.
I smile every morning when I get up and realize that one of our greatcities has not been blown away. And, there is zero doubt in my mind that ifwe pull out of Iraq prematurely, that will happen within a short period oftime after our departure. I don’t care what you might think of PresidentBush personally. He has done the best he can with what he has, and thiscountry is not smoking because of it. So, back off McLean and McClellan.You honestly don’t have a clue about what you are talking about. Call me,and I will tell you what I really think.
I realize there are different points of view on war, and I do not believethe meek will inherit the earth, at least not in the next few hundredyears. To those like McClellan, McLean, poor Eve Kyes and Sinowa Cruz letme say, “This is a strong country!!!” It has survived the uneducated thinking of the far-left before, and I’ll just bet it will again. Regardless of who is President, the people will not tolerate mass explosions on a daily basis, as our good friends in Israel have been forcedto do. To protect that position of power, even Hillary will be forced to become a true hawk. To guarantee a few more votes Ted Kennedy may be forced to begin supporting a strong military. One more attack on America might even wipe the giddy,’I-am-finally-somebody’ grin from Nancy Pelosi’s face, and make her realize that is not about votes and personal power. IT IS ABOUT PROTECTING THIS GREAT COUNTRY FROM ALL ENEMIES, BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.
Jimmy L. Cash, Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret.
“Victory at all cost. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory no matter how long and how hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival”
Winston Churchill
May 13, 1940
GOD BLESS AMERICA !
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